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Bombers hoppy ending

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Just dropping in to say hi.
Im a new member and new to the home brew game.
4 weeks ago I started gathering together items to get me started. Bought some 2nd hand fermentation kit and brewing equipment. Purchased a 2nd hand larder fridge and wired it with a 40W heater and an STC-1000.
3 weeks ago I started a pilgrims hope kit, and bottled it on Monday. Currently bottles are in the top of the fridge conditioning for 2 weeks. Wednesday I started the 2nd fermentation, a Cwtch which is currently fermenting fairly vigorously. The fermentation fridge seems to be working great and is capable of maintaining the FV to within 0.3C of target temp.
All going well, I have a Suffolk strong ale to go on once the Cwtch is bottled.
That’s were I current am in this great new venture. Hopefully the beer is worth the effort.
Looking forward to learning all I can from you guys with all the experience.
 
Thanks for the welcome guys. Hopefully these work out well. Just reading up on here about the Cwtch trying to forward plan. Currently thinking I may have to try and source a bag, on the quick, to dry hop to reduce the amount of sediment and suspended rubbish.
 
A bag isn't really necessary, and it will impair the impact of your hops unless you up the volume of hops

Hops will settle as will other "rubbish" which are protein molecules

Time will let these settle naturally

This can be speeded up by

- Using something like protofloc (Irish Moss) in your boil

- Cold crashing (5C ish) after fermentation

- Gelatin before bottling after fermentation

A hop bag will make it easier to clean your boiler - but it is not essential

Remember that the human race has been brewing beer for over 10,000 years - long before hop bags, protofloc and gelatin had been invented

In fact even before this forum was started
 
A bag isn't really necessary, and it will impair the impact of your hops unless you up the volume of hops

Hops will settle as will other "rubbish" which are protein molecules

Time will let these settle naturally

This can be speeded up by

- Using something like protofloc (Irish Moss) in your boil

- Cold crashing (5C ish) after fermentation

- Gelatin before bottling after fermentation

A hop bag will make it easier to clean your boiler - but it is not essential

Remember that the human race has been brewing beer for over 10,000 years - long before hop bags, protofloc and gelatin had been invented

In fact even before this forum was started
😂 point taken.
I haven’t progressed to boiling yet, these are 2 can kits. But I understand where your coming from.
I haven’t managed to sort anyway of harvesting CO2 to reuse when cold crashing as yet. So am concerned about the increased risk of oxidation caused by pulling air into the FV as the temp drops and causes a vacuum.
I have considered finings to aid clearing.
When I bottled the pilgrims hope I used a filter bag in the bottling bucket on the open end of the syphon hose. Managed to collect a lot of hop material and sediment, so will definitely be using that again.
 
I’ve got a picture of the fridge fermenter I was going to post to show you guys the set up so far, but don’t think I have enough posts yet to upload images as the button doesn’t appear yet as shown in the how to. When it does ill up load it.
 
Here’s a pic of the fermentation fridge I put together 4 weeks ago that got this whole thing started.
1st brew is in the top conditioning, 2nd is below it with about 17 days to go. It’s controlled using an STC-1000
1F5AB7E9-4913-4587-8509-48BB17DD0E21.jpeg
 
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@Bombers hoppy ending, welcome to Forum. Impressive looking setup!

FYI, I've done quite a few of the Festival kits, including both Pilgrim and Suffolk, and I've found that Festival's darker ale kits have massively benefitted from much longer periods of bottle conditioning compared to their 'lighter' IPA, Pale Ale, Pilsner options.

I normally follow the 2-2-2 guideline you'll see in numerous Forum threads (2 weeks in FV, 2 weeks bottle priming, 2 weeks conditioning). But, with both of those 'darker' best bitters, I found that they didn't really come into their own until after about 4-6 weeks of bottle conditioning.

By comparison, for instance, I've done the Razorback IPA a couple of times, Summer Glory, NZ Pilsner, Landlord, and Belgian Pale, among others, and have enjoyed an 'early' bottle of these even when nevertheless still within their final 2 weeks conditioning phase.

However, whilst both Pilgrim and Suffolk come good and are excellent beers eventually, don't be surprised if they taste a bit 'raw' (especially the Suffolk), were temptation to win over patience, and you sample these within 6-8 weeks of bottling!
 
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@Bombers hoppy ending, welcome to Forum. Impressive looking setup!

FYI, I've done quite a few of the Festival kits, including both Pilgrim and Suffolk, and I've found that Festival's darker ale kits have massively benefitted from much longer periods of bottle conditioning compared to their 'lighter' IPA, Pale Ale, Pilsner options.

I normally follow the 2-2-2 guideline you'll see in numerous Forum threads (2 weeks in FV, 2 weeks bottle priming, 2 weeks conditioning). But, with both of those 'darker' best bitters, I found that they didn't really come into their own until about 4-6 weeks of bottle conditioning.

By comparison, for instance, I've done the Razorback IPA a couple of times, Summer Glory, NZ Pilsner, Landlord, and Belgian Pale, among others, and have enjoyed an 'early' bottle of these whilst they're nevertheless still within their final 2 weeks conditioning phase.

However, whilst both Pilgrim and Suffolk come good and are excellent beers eventually, don't be surprised if they taste a bit 'raw' were temptation to win over patience, and you sample within 6-8 weeks of bottling!
Thanks for the reply.
awesome to see you’ve brewed some of the festival’s. Thank also for the comments about kit.
I did a lot of reading before I took the plunge. I had a small dabble about 35 years ago and if I recall the results weren’t great I think from memory I may have done 2 or 3 kits. This time round I was intrigued by the new Pinter, all in one brew system that is currently being advertised. It soon became evident the results weren’t great and not as cost effective.
so I read up on what were the most important things to give you the best results. The answers seem to be cleanliness, controlled fermentation temperature, limit oxidation and patience.
so I built the fridge after hours of research, purchased almost all of the fermentation and bottling equipment from Facebook market place and then added the few bits I hadn’t got, new.
Then I read up on which kits gave good results, and here I am. Just approaching 4 weeks in.
The pilgrims hope sat on the yeast for 21 days prior to bottling and was dry hopped on day 14. Initially followed the instructions but was then told, on a different forum that the 21C fermentation temp may be a little on the warm side. So the Cwtch is currently sitting at a very constant 18.5C.
I may leave the pilgrims in the top of the fermentation cupboard until this one is ready to bottle. So they would have had 21 days, then crate them in the garage. They appear to be carbing up as the few I did in plastic bottles appear to be pressuring nicely. However the temp at the top of the fridge is cooler than I expected only sitting at around 18C. May look at a mod prior to the 3rd batch going on, and make a reinforced shelf and move the FV to the top and place the bottles at the bottom. That way they will see warmer temps as the temp prob is strapped to the FV. Always tweaks to improve the set up.
 
Just a question, do you only brew kits. Any recommendations for other good kits. I only drink ales/ IPA style beers.
thanks
 
@Bombers hoppy ending, not had a bad Festival kit yet. Have had a similar run of success with Mangrove Jacks Craft Series kits (Dry Irish Stout, Juicy Session IPA) which are also 3kg pouch kits made by same Bevie Products Group.

In terms of particular kit recommendations, favourites so far have been the Razorback IPA, Summer Glory, Belgian Pale Ale, and NZ Pilsner. MJ Dry Irish Stout bottled three weeks ago, just in time for St Paddys Day, is currently going down extremely well.

Many on Forum also rate the Youngs range, especially the AIPA (already firmly on my to-do list).

And, get yourself a hop spider. Best investment I ever made...

I'm also fan of Festival kits and dry-hopping. Not, though, a fan of the little nylon muslin type hop-filter bags Festival provide to filter trub/hops when syphoning. But I've found the solution!

I use an auto-syphon to transfer brew from FV into bottling bucket, but the little hop-filter bags used to regularly get so gunked up during transfer that flow rate often slowed to an absolute standstill.

Pressure differential from blocked filters could be so much during transfer as to cause CO2 to come out of solution, breaking vacuum and syphon flow, requiring frequent repriming - and much loss of hair.

Last straw for me was a transfer of Vienna Red Lager which took about a dozen restarts over two hours of syphoning. Nearly resorted to using a jug in a desperate bid to rescue what I thought was a subsequently ruined brew from oxidation. (Brew actually survived - hair did not!)

So, I bought a stainless steel 300 micron mesh hop spider. (Cost £5-£20 depending on size). This investment was, for me, an absolute game changer! Worth every penny in alleviating my usual and regular bottling process stress.

I still dry hop without it. In that any dry hopping cones/pellets are chucked into the FV bucket loose as before. But when racking the final brew into my bottling bucket, I now hook the spider onto the lip of the open FV brew bucket and syphon the settled clear brew from inside the hop spider mesh cylinder.

The large surface area mesh of the spider never blocks, and flow rate of transfer is now much, much faster. I unhook the spider towards the end of the transfer, resting the bottom of it gently onto the sediment as I tilt the FV to allow the syphon to get to the bottom of the clear settled and undisturbed brew.

What was an occasionally challenging process is now reliably straight forward. Racking a 23 litre brew into my bottling bucket now takes me as little as 2 minutes to transfer all but the last 200ml of trub and hops, delivering reliably clear brew into my bottling bucket and minimising the chance of oxidation in the process.

Wish I'd known about such kit and used one years ago. Hopefully paying forward here to help others struggling with same!
 
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Thanks for that. I have been looking at those. I used a Trub filter for the pilgrims but put it on the bottling bucket end of the auto syphon and caught all the debris in it. I will get myself a hop spider on order. Hopefully here before this Cwtch needs racking.
 
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